It’s no lie that I lead a high-stress life. At work I handle customer service with pet owners and multiple projects daily. At home I have my instant family. And now in life my body is 100% of the time working to create a baby and I have to make sure to eat the right things, get enough sleep and not over do it. Needless to say I am also a Type A personality. (I should probably add a + or 2 after that “A” there.)
So my mother comes over this weekend and she and FH get into how stress can reflect on the baby’s personality and temperament. Great! Let’s add some more things to stress me out. So I’ve been working on a few ways to not stress or to at least calm myself more. Which isn’t easy.
Luckily Jane has been on best behavior as of late. By that I mean she has actually kept her dinner dates with the boys the last month or so and is actually sticking to the holiday agreement that she gets the boys for the weekend this Easter. (I’m secretly hoping this means we can start sending them over there for the weekends again.)
However, Middle Boy and Younger Boy have not been on best behavior. In order to deal with this I’ve been trying to let FH go in there and lay down the law of the land. However, apparently I’m the big boss in the house so I only try to intervene when it gets crazy hair pulling out of control. (That’s a great blog I’ll save for later too.) But I’m hoping that they’ll start to show a bit more respect for FH when he’s being the authorative parent. Personally I think he just needs to just be more consistent in stepping in.
Back to me, I’ve found that the Winnie-The-Pooh movie, classical music, baby lullabies, ice cream and chocolate pudding cups are my best means of relaxing – And of course catching any moment of quiet that I can.
I’m curious to see what types of things you’ve found to help yourself relax from the crazy stepmomma or momma life. I know it’s only going to get more crazy once the baby is born but I figure now is a good time as any to start practicing ways to relax and recharge.
BTW – I’ll be 13 weeks on Wednesday. Yay for the recent decrease in morning sickness as the second trimester creeps into the picture!
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9 comments:
First, congrats on decreasing m/s! I'm sure you are enjoying it, as much as can be. They say second trimester is the honeymoon stage of pregnancy. I agree, but I have loved third trimester even more.
Next, good for you for establishing "your time" now to relax. Sure, stressing isn't good for the baby. But you are stressing about every day life stuff, not emergency or life threatening stuff, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. (No point in stressing about too much stress.)
Have you had time to enjoy being pregnancy yet?
As a step-mum to three primary school age kids, I find taking a book (and maybe a snack) to my bedroom and closing the door works to give me time out. I will sometimes do this as soon as I have come home from work, greeted everyone, and checked the school notices, so from about 5:40ish to dinner time at 6ish (my husband cooks). I would take longer if it was practical! I also love it when they are all (the three kids and my husband) occupied upstairs and I get to sit downstairs in the lounge doing the same thing. That's probably nicer than going into my room and shutting the door, although also less reliable in that I'm more likely to be interrupted.
Lots of people like bubble baths, but I find the fuss of running a bath, and the fact that it's difficult to read in the bath, and that if you have to attend to a child's needs it's an operation to get out of the bath, dry and dress, mean I don't really do that very often.
I also take my breakfast outside and wander around looking at the garden while I am eating. I love observing my garden, and I enjoy being outside, and I enjoy that most of the time I am alone, or when I am joined by a child I generally get to talk to them about the garden, which is my passion, rather than about whether they have made their bed or packed their school bag.
I am very selfish with nap times and the time after the kids go to bed. I figure I spend most of the day helping everyone get ready, making meals, doing laundry, helping with homework, etc. While the kids are asleep I refuse to use that time to wash dishes or clean toilets. I do whatever I want to do. That might be reading, sewing or watching silly tv shows, reading blogs. It doesn't matter as long as it is something I want to do. So often the house is less than tidy but with 2 boys I figure it wouldn't last that long anyways! ;) Oh, and I eat a lot of chocolate. Speaking of, chocolate pudding sounds really good right now!
'Daddy dates' Child and bf go out on 'dates' and I get to chillax. However I only have one s/kid whereas you have three
I'm no expert on decreasing the stresses of motherhood, but I've heard lavender oil is great aromatherapy for relaxation (from momma stress or otherwise).
Oh, I've been so out of it! CONGRATULATIONS!! How wonderful for you. Well, having the baby that is, I hated being pregnant myself.
Anyway, walk, get outside, take long warm baths. Those are the things that get me through the stress now. And probably did when I was preggers too. Definately get lots of alone time now, cuz pretty soon you'll have absolutely none.
I like to go running or some sort of workout out of the house. It's a short period of me time but very refreshing and lets me get back to the gang with a more relaxed frame of mind.
Awww, I'm so glad to hear everything is going well. So happy for you!
Oh my gosh I didn't know I have been out of the blog world so long.
CONGRATS!!
That is absolutely the best news ever- I will be back to catch up on everything else I missed and will make sure I get online and keep up more often now.
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